1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to atomizers, and more particularly, to manually operated, accumulator type atomizers for atomizing liquids such as perfumes, cosmetic preparations or the like.
"Manual accumulator type atomizer" will be used in this application to mean an atomizer which uses a manually operated pumping mechanism. In general, this pumping mechanism evacuates the interior of an accumulator chamber of the mechanism, at which time a suction valve is opened to intake liquid from a container upon which the atomizer is mounted. When the interior of the accumulator is pressurized again by pumping, an exhaust valve is opened to expel liquid from a nozzle outlet. The present invention is an improvement upon devices disclosed in application Ser. No. 134,186, filed on Mar. 26, 1980 (now abandoned), a continuation-in-part of which (Ser. No. 347,498, filed Feb. 10, 1982) is copending with this application.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Atomizers of this type generally open their exhaust valves only when the interior of the accumulator chamber becomes greater than a predetermined pressure. The exhaust valve automatically closes when the pressure decreases below that predetermined pressure. This provides a disadvantage in that increased pressure (although lower than the predetermined pressure) is retained in the accumulator chamber. Thus the accumulator chamber becomes insufficiently evacuated during the return stroke. It had been proposed to eliminate this disadvantage by providing a hole in the upper surface of a cylinder which forms the accumulator chamber and to form an exhaust passage for the residual pressure which communicates between this hole and the inner surface of the accumulator chamber to allow release of the pressure when the atomizer head would reach its lower most position. However, liquid was exhausted as well as air when the residual pressure was released, causing the liquid to flow down the inner wall of the container which held the liquid. This was detrimental to the appearance of the container. Moreover, bubbles would be mixed with the liquid, which could opacify the liquid and give an appearance of impurities in the liquid.